Problem with Brandon Weik
Sorry it took me so long to find this. I don't check this place often and it took a call from a friend to notify me of this situation. Now, I suppose I will explain my side of things.
First off, if you wipe an animal off or soak it before you put it in a bag and ship it to someone that does get rid of the mites on the animal, the only problem with that is it does not get rid of the eggs, which have been laid on the animal. Which then can start hatching anytime after the wipe down or soak. Mite eggs hatch in about one to three days depending on the surrounding conditions, then from day three to fourteen or so they are in the protontymph stage in which they are very small and nearly invisible to the naked eye. Finally at about two weeks old or so they make one more metamorphosis into adult-hood and can been seen easily with the naked eye and then they start the process all over again.
Second, I asked if they had ever had mites and here is the reply I received verbatim, "They haven't had mites in my care." Now considering these are the only two animals at my home in quarantine and I have no other animals in my home and have not had an animal in my home since 8/27/03 when I received some animals I purchased in Daytona. These animals were kept here for 30 days (9/30/03) to insure no mites were present, despite them coming from a close friend. Keep in mind the life cycle of a mite is about 30 days so even if you start on 10/1/03 the mites would no longer be alive on 12/10/03 if they had any on the last day they were here, which they did not.
Chris also told me when I first inquired about the animals on 10/14/03; he had owned the animals for about 4 months and more than that on two of the males. Then on 12/10/03 I asked again and he said the following, "I have had them for about. I guess 4 months now." Yes, I know there are typos, but I am copying right from the emails. Also he guaranteed me that the animals would feed, which they have not done since I got them on 12/10/03. This was one thing I noticed Chris left out of his original complaint. As for the lawsuit, I did not say I was going to sue him for fraud, I said I am going to contact my bank which issued the certified money order for the animals and file a fraud complaint.
Setting all that aside, if one of these animals acquired a disease from the mites and then were to come into contact with my animals and give them the disease which could then spread to other animals in the collection that would create a large problem for me and that is not a risk I or any of you other Boa owners should be willing to take. Mites are a lot more serious than some people here make it sound. Just because you get rid of the mites doesn't mean that you necessarily got rid of the problem, mites are just the transporter, not the root problem. Diseases like Inclusion Body Disease, Cryptosporidium or Paramyxovirus are the real problem and my ultimate concern.
Now, as far as the reference to buyers remorse or something like that, you are correct in a way. I don’t want animals that were not honestly represented and I did want my money back because of it. I don’t like the idea of giving someone $600.00 for non-feeding, animals with mites. This is similar to the case with Mr. Oakley with the Carpet Python, it had mites that I did not notice immediately and I requested a refund. Brian did take care of it the same day and I applaud him for that. The situation with the Albino Boa was a bit different though, I found a couple of mites in the environment two days after I bought the animals and simply sent the person who I bought them from an email saying they should check their other animals because I found a few. Then I received and email back from this person attacking me for telling him the news and calling me a liar along with other choice names.
I hope that this sheds a little more light on the situation and I also realize that I am the one who made a mistake by buying from an inexperienced herper. Since his post here, this is the email he sent me.
“I can't refund them. You could send them back, but I recommend you just
give them a bath with olive oil to get rid of the mites. Why would you file
fraud charges?
Sorry about taking so long since my last email, I was gone on vacation for a
while.”
Considering that olive oil if ingested can easily kill a snake I don’t think that is the best idea, it seems to be along the same lines as leaving pesticides in your snake room all the time.
I hope that I have not offended anyone and if I have, my apologies.
If you have taken the time to read this entire post thank you and I hope that you can see my point.
Brandon Weik
www.summitreptiles.com
